Biggie Smalls Is Still Influential 13 Years After His Death

Today is the 13th anniversary of the death of Christopher Wallace—aka The Notorious B.I.G.—possibly the most momentous hip hop artist of all time. Here he is before he "made it," rapping on a Brooklyn street corner at 17.

As the video shows, before Wallace/B.I.G. (Biggie Smalls was another nickname) was well known, he was free styling on the streets and trying to get noticed, just like many other hip hop artists.

Wallace was gunned down in Los Angeles at the peak of the rivalry between the West Coast and East Coast hip hop rivalry that also took the life Tupac Shakur, another supreme artist in his own right.